Can you believe Microsoft just shipped ADWARE with Windows 10???? Let’s use this little news gem as a wonderful context for how exactly we arrived here in the present day with Microsoft shipping what it used to call “Crapware” as part of a major OS release.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/solitaire-windows-10-pay-to-remove-ads-2015-7
So far I’ve written two lengthy and simply fascinating blog posts on the history of Windows Update but if you’re not bored with updater stories yet… I’ve got more. For example, there was that time when Microsoft used Windows update to ship a FAKE Y2K update…
http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2013/03/09/the-fake-y2k-patch/
Frankly I don’t blame them a bit for it. The media and consumers were apoplectic over the imaginary “Y2K” crisis. It didn’t matter how expert you were as a computer scientist, how authoritative your background was, it was simply unacceptable to tell people that it was an imaginary crisis. I guess it must have been selling lots of newspapers back then but Microsoft couldn’t get the media to stop asking about their Y2K preparations. They were hardly going to tell the media that Windows has hundreds of thousands of known bugs that most people don’t notice and date related ones might be .001% of them. So what did they do? Took an ordinary Windows patch release and called it the Y2K patch. The press were thrilled and wrote lots of BS articles about how Microsoft had finally been pressured to deal with Y2K concerns. Paranoid consumers updated and felt better that their PC wasn’t going to burst into flame on Jan 1. 2001. It was a fascinating study in mass hysteria because 24 hours before the New Year you couldn’t convince a single person that it was just hype and 24 hours AFTER nothing happened nobody could remember having ever been all that concerned about it.
The “legendary” WildTangent Holiday AI dancer created by Quake Artist Paul Steed written in the MSJVM was downloaded 5m times the week it was released
In my last article I grazed over the issue of disabling Java in Windows XP with a service patch release but that event a much more cautionary tale about the use of an all powerful updater. Microsoft had done a deal with Sun to license the Java language. I was in the room with the Microsoft executives who did the deal when it closed and of course there was a great deal of celebration. Microsoft went on to implement the MSJVM, the fastest, most stable more robust implementation of the Java language in existence at the time. It was flat our superior to Sun’s own implementation… with a couple liberties taken to make Java run better in a Windows environment. Microsoft shipped their JVM with all versions of Internet Explorer and for a brief glorious time in Internet history it was possible to write amazingly robust browser based applications that worked consistently everywhere. When I founded WildTangent I built our streaming 3D game engine technology around the MSJVM and at it’s peak around 2004 the WildTangent Web Driver and ActiveX plugin that ran in IE and used the MSJVM to play streaming 3D games had over 130 million active users… in an era when most people still connected to the Internet with modems. WildTangent was the worlds largest most widely adopted Java platform. Furthermore our Java games shipped with almost every leading PC OEM including Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, Lenovo, and many others. The PC OEM’s all shipped our games because having them on the desktop in retail sold new PC’s. We made family friendly Nintendo style 3D casual games that just reliably worked everywhere because we made very sophisticated use of our updater to cope with all manner of PC hardware and driver irregularities without the consumer noticing.
During this glorious heyday in WildTangent’s history Microsoft was very frustrated with us. They had their own casual game site called “The Zone” and had an investment in making and publishing their own casual games. They wanted the PC OEM’s to ship their games with new Windows PCs… They wanted the PC OEM’s to make MSN the default browser home page… they wanted the PC OEM’s to promote Microsoft products and services but didn’t want to pay the OEM’s or share revenue with them for doing it. The OEM’s were gleefully doing deals with Google for browser share, Symantec for security software, WildTangent for games, RealNetworks for Music, etc. and PAYING them for placement on the Windows desktop. Microsoft was having fits over it. Microsoft kept making their own store application that was terrible and trying to force the PC OEM’s to adopt it. It wasn’t until Windows 8 that they finally just jammed it into an OS and shipped it.
Of course Microsoft didn’t want competing desktop services to work and they didn’t have their own general purpose updater and wouldn’t share it if they did with other Windows developers to create a seamless and secure update experience ( Like Apples ). So instead each application AND the PC OEM had their own updaters that competed with one another for system resources and their own independent ways of pop-up desktop messaging. Failing in its efforts to force OEM’s to only sell Microsoft branded services Microsoft decided instead that “Security” would become a major marketing theme… but what they meant was “security” from competing Windows applications on the desktop. The DOJ anti-trust trial had tied Microsoft’s hands, they could no longer forcibly bundle other products and services with Windows. “Security” on the other hand was a “feature” everybody expected of an OS.
http://winsupersite.com/blog/supersite-blog-39/news2/microsoft-to-load-hp-pcs-with-crapware-138090
“Microsoft complained that PC makers were putting too much crapware on their PCs, thereby ruining the “user experience” of Windows for new users. “We can’t do anything about it because it would be illegal,” a senior Microsoft executive told CBS News in January 2007.”
After years of failing to reclaim control of the OEM’s and Windows Desktop, Microsoft designed their ultimate OS to reclaim control of their platform. Windows Vista… Vista was designed on the philosophy that if a Windows product or service didn’t work for Microsoft then Vista would ensure that it didn’t work for anybody. Security meant that the entire OS was crippled with pop-up security warning dialogs that conveyed the implication that any and all software NOT pre-installed with Windows was a nefarious security threat. Layers of user sandboxes were added to cripple automatic updaters to prevent them from automatically patching their own bugs or security flaws without triggering an ominous VISTA security warning pop-up.
Microsoft’s first failed attempt at an invasive desktop UI was also introduced called VISTA Sidebar. This was all done in the name of “security” which was completely understandable given the rampant security problems with Windows XP… the only difference was that Microsoft’s definition of a “security threat” conveniently encompassed all legitimate commercial software that competed with their own offerings. It could be said that VISTA was Microsoft’s tantrum over the constraints of the DOJ settlement. If they couldn’t control the desktop and browser… nobody could! In these screenshots of Windows Vista we see two of the disastrously failed ideas from Vista that re-appeared even MORE disastrously in Windows 8. The Windows Marketplace which was a pre-cursor to the Windows Store and the Vista Sidebar which was a pre-cursor to the Windows 8 Metro UI. Both of these features were relatively optional in Windows Vista… and of course, nobody wanted them or used them. Although Microsoft knew them to be “unwanted” Windows features their lack of popularity didn’t serve Microsoft’s interest in reclaiming control of the Windows desktop… so in Windows 8 they FORCED the Windows store and their own completely managed desktop into the UI experience where nobody could disable or avoid it. On each heavy handed occasion Microsoft has tried to promote these unpopular “Features” in a Windows release the OS has gone down in history as a legendary failed product launch. The important to Microsoft of regaining this control is so critical to the company that they will sacrifice almost any amount of consumer good-will to jam these “features” under the consumers nose to try to force their adoption.
In this context the fact that Windows 10 will FORCE updates is not a problem for the various positive reasons relating to security and stability that Microsoft promotes, but let’s not kid ourselves, what Microsoft has historically meant when they promote security is THEIR security not yours.
Did I mention Java earlier in this story? Why yes I did… Let’s jump back in time a bit to around 2001 shortly after the DOJ settlement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.
The outcome of this trial completely warped the computing world because it marked a time when Microsoft’s “old” competitive tricks no longer worked and they had not yet invented new ones. It took them several years to discover that “SECURITY!!!!!!” and “PRIVACY!!!!” were the new weapons of platform competition. There was also this little problem with Sun suing them for a billion dollars for perverting the Java standard that wasn’t quite resolved in the DOJ trial…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Java_Virtual_Machine
The Sun lawsuit over Java dragged on long after the DOJ settlement. The judge invalidated Microsoft’s license to Java. Microsoft declared that since they could no longer maintain the MSJVM they couldn’t support it in IE any longer. Clearly out of concern for consumer SECURITY Microsoft would have to delete the entire active installed base of MSJVM run times installed with all copies of IE across the Internet.
http://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/18830858/microsoft-sun-agree-to-extend-msjvm-support-for-another-year.htm
“Customers should make the changes because “we will no longer be able to support it in the future,” Grabner said. “If a critical issue is discovered, we couldn’t issue a fix.”
Sun was Jubilant about the ruling and Microsoft’s declared intention to remove the MSJVM from all Windows machines via a “security update” to Windows XP. The fact that there was an entire ecosystem of Internet companies who’s entire products depended on MSJVM was of no concern to anybody involved… until WildTangent filed an Amicus Curie with the court declaring that we and many other companies were innocent victims of Microsoft’s dispute with Sun and that the court should not FORCE Microsoft to use a security update to remove the entire installed base of MSJVM’s that we and many other companies relied on.
http://openjurist.org/333/f3d/517/in-re-microsoft-corporation-antitrust-litigation
“On Tuesday, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant and its archrival, Sun Microsystems, announced an agreement under which Microsoft will continue support for the Microsoft’s Java Virtual Machine–called MSJVM–until Sept. 30, 2004.”
http://news.microsoft.com/2004/04/02/microsoft-and-sun-microsystems-enter-broad-cooperation-agreement-settle-outstanding-litigation/
The battle with Sun was not the first or only case in which Microsoft threatened or did use Windows Update as a competitive weapon to deal with inconvenient competitive products and platforms. Macromedia Flash evolved an automatic updater to deal with Microsoft’s ongoing breaking of Flash with IE security releases. At a time when Microsoft was trying hard to push it’s own alternative to the Flash player, Microsoft removed Flash support from IE and created a special “optional update” that included Silverlight. The terms of the DOJ settlement apparently prevented them from outright shipping Silverlight with IE but they tried to fold Silverlight features and dependencies into every Microsoft product release.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/127134/Microsoft_Drops_Flash_Support_In_Upcoming_Browser.php
“For the web to move forward and for consumers to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free,” said Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch in a blog post. According to Hachamovitch, the plug-in experience is “not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web.”
In truth Microsoft had long been looking for an opportunity to displace Flash and HTML 5 was the perfect excuse. They couldn’t unilaterally delete Flash or push Silverlight but they could keep shipping browser “security patches” that impacted Flash’s stability and user experience. Like Java, we helped Adobe get to the PC OEM’s who also continued to ship Flash integrated with IE on the desktop to avoid the inevitable deluge of support calls that would inevitably follow selling millions of consumer PC’s that wouldn’t play peoples favorite social games.
The year is 2015, the terms of the DOJ settlement are over, after half a dozen documented attempts to impose a Microsoft controlled app store on the desktop, to kill all other downloadable application businesses and to re-take control of the Windows desktop with a UI that gave Microsoft control of icon placement and media sales on the desktop Microsoft has shipped a FREE major OS release delivered via Windows Update, after running a pop-up ad campaign on our desktops to promote it. The new Windows OS, carries the much reviled Metro UI into the Start menu despite it being pretty unambiguously established that almost EVERYBODY hates it. The purpose of all of this is to retake control of their platform by force. To use an aggressive update strategy to ensure that they never lose control again and to turn the Windows desktop into a media and app placement marketplace that they control. It may not be obvious during the initial roll-out that this is the plan, they’ll wait until you’ve updated. Basically Windows 10 is Microsoft’s declaration that they’ve given up hope of making an OS that anybody wants to purchase voluntarily. They’ve decided that it’s easier to give it away and sell media and services into it than it is to make an OS people want to adopt voluntarily.
The existence of a forced update service on all PC’s will be used by governments around the world to force Microsoft to give them access to your machines and personal information on demand. Viewing your files remotely will be as effortless as complying with a subpoena to reveal your email contents. On any occasion that Microsoft loses a patent or license infringement lawsuit entire industries can be wiped out with the click of an update button. The “adware”, “crapware” and “spyware” Microsoft promised to protect us from has become the OS.
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/microsoft-will-automatically-install-candy-crush-saga-on-windows-10/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/craplets-could-damage-vista-launch-microsoft-exec-1.692434
“They include things such as links to online services, and demo versions of programs.
“We call them craplets,” the MICROSOFT official said.”
The post Windows 10, the Ultimate craplet appeared first on The Saint.